August 1, 2024 – Durham, NC – biospatial is proud to announce our contribution to a newly published Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) research paper, “Comparison of emergency medical services and emergency department encounter trends for nonfatal opioid-involved overdoses, nine states, United States, 2020–2022,” featured in ScienceDirect.
This study utilized aggregate data from biospatial’s expansive emergency medical services (EMS) network, in conjunction with emergency department (ED) data from the CDC’s Drug Overdose Surveillance & Epidemiology system and National Syndromic Surveillance Program. The research aimed to compare trends in nonfatal opioid-involved overdoses between EMS and ED data sources across nine states from 2020 to 2022.
Key findings from the study revealed that EMS data captured 1.8 times more monthly opioid-involved overdose encounters than ED data. Both data sources demonstrated similar trends in the counts and rates of opioid-involved overdose encounters, highlighting the complementary nature of EMS and ED data in understanding overdose trends.
Josh Walters, COO of biospatial, commented, “We are honored to support the CDC in this important research. This study underscores the vital role EMS providers serve in response to the opioid crisis alongside other first responders, healthcare systems, and the community. EMS data facilitates more comprehensive research to inform public health responses, improve patient outcomes, and ultimately reduce the number of overdoses in our country and break the addiction cycle.”
The study emphasizes the need for implementing post-overdose response protocols by both EMS and ED providers to ensure patients receive necessary services regardless of the care setting.
Read the full CDC paper here.
About biospatial:
Headquartered in Durham, NC, biospatial is a distinguished healthcare analytics business with an expansive data network. Our platform provides biospatial customers with near real-time access to electronic patient care reports (ePCR) for EMS transports from thousands of EMS providers in over 40 US states. biospatial collects and curates over 100,000 new ePCRs daily. Utilizing proprietary artificial intelligence, biospatial supports customers across multiple industries, enhancing awareness, informing decisions, and improving outcomes.
For more information about biospatial’s capabilities, please visit the company’s website at www.biospatial.io, email us at contact@biospatial.io, or follow biospatial on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/biospatial) or X (@biospatial1).